


Jaemins Box: The Curious Case of Huang Renjun and Lee Jeno

by kreamhyuck



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Comedy, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, NCT Dream Ensemble-centric, Na Jaemin is Whipped, Na Jaemin-centric, Polyamory, Realization, a sad attempt at personification of pandoras box, i guess, jaemin is curious, norenmin, renjun and jeno are mysterious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-11 07:33:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17442629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kreamhyuck/pseuds/kreamhyuck
Summary: “Just confess, hyung.” Jisung tells him on a bored tone over the speakers of his phone. Jaemin let out a scandalized gasp. He heard Jisung tsked. “Hyung, do you like Renjun?” “Yes.” “How about Jeno?” “Yes.” “Will you give up one of them?” “No!!” “There’s your answer.” Jisung really is an interesting person, Jaemin decided.or Jaemin is gifted with curiosity and gets invested at the mystery of Huang Renjun and Lee Jeno.





	Jaemins Box: The Curious Case of Huang Renjun and Lee Jeno

Jaemin is gifted with curiosity. He thrives for the oddment of things within his reach and marvels through the wonders of personalities. Jaemin is sure it is the very reason why he’s latched with his set of friends. At first it was just Lee Donghyuck. At age 5, Jaemin has seen the stars on the boy’s eyes, intermingling with those of Jaemins’ own orbs. They were similar but different in a way. Jaemin is drawn by the boy’s antics and weird way of thinking. But if there’s one thing Jaemin was genuinely curious at, it was the singing. Donghyuck loves to sing and Jaemin is sure it is his gift. Donghyuck’s singing is a cool breeze of air to the ears. It’s like honey dripping down the boy’s throat laced with the sweetness of chocolate milk Jaemin knows he’ll love if not for being lactose intolerant. Donghyuck can make the world listen to him sing for hours and hours or days or months. But Donghyuck never sings outside of Jaemin’s room. He never mentions the artists he loves and the songs he listens to outside of Jaemin’s walled territory. For months his tongue began to itch with wonderment as he took his time to investigate his friend’s odd behavior. At age 7, he got his answer. “ _My mum’s a singer.”_ Donghyuck said, a smile not quite reaching his eyes. Jaemin is confused. Donghyuck doesn’t have a mum.

 

And then it was Mark Lee, their new neighbor. Mark was at first, a quiet kid. He looked lanky and groggy with sleep. _As if he never slept!_ Mark is a year older, but they quickly became friends. Donghyuck loved to tease Mark’s absent mindedness while Jaemin loved to watch their banters. Mark is also a foreigner, Jaemin has learned. He’s been curious about his name for a while, but he never got the opportunity to ask. He always forgot the things he takes interest in whenever he and Mark and Donghyuck plays. As if time stops and Jaemin is locked in a place of nothing but fun and games. There’s another thing Jaemin was concerned about. The lights on Mark’s bedroom never really went out. He observes as he sat on his bed, focused on the neighboring window with curtains closed but lights on. One night, Jaemin was woken up with a distant voice he has heard a lot of times. It was then that his eyes shot open, red and glazed from lack of sleep, his body quick to react on Donghyuck’s melodic voice, a little tuned out because of the walls. The lights on Mark’s room are still on despite the fact that it’s 3 in the morning as he hears the fading sound of the honey voice. The giggling following the silence made Jaemin open his window and shout at his neighbor, “ _Murk Lee! Let me in too!”_ That night, Jaemin knew about insomnias and childhood crushes.

 

Middle school was suddenly there and Jaemin is hit with his growing fondness to people. He still has Donghyuck and Mark with him, but he felt a tingling in his heart when he heard about a certain boy, younger than him with a weird accent. The smile the boy offered him when Jaemin tried to talk is enough to melt his already soft heart and Jaemin would more than be grateful to keep him close. Chenle is loud. Like, megaphone loud. He talks out loud, laughs out loud, yells just as loud. To Jaemin, it was music to his ears. To Donghyuck, it was agonizingly deafening. But they cliqued! The laughter doubled whenever Chenle squealed and it was _very_ funny to see Donghyuck cover his ears over-exaggeratingly. It was Mark’s weirdness that drove Chenle to hang out. The young Chinese boy has a certain glint on his eyes whenever he sees Mark, trying his best not to fall asleep during lunch break. He also has a thing for his lap, as Chenle decides it’s a better place to cushion his butt than the cold concrete benches they often whenever they eat their lunch outside the cafeteria. But then, Chenle wouldn’t want to hang out with them more times than often. Jaemin finds it odd. The cogs on his brain seems to run faster when snoopy as one day, he followed the boy after school hours. There he finds him at the school gates, smiling fondly at a then shorter kid who looks just as lanky as Mark but a lot more cuter than any of Jaemin’s plushies.

 

Jisung quickly joined their small circle when Jaemin asked Chenle to bring him to lunch break one time. Jisung was shy and quiet, a striking contrast to Chenle’s loudness. But both the kids are adorable and so Jaemin made a vow to baby them forever. They are his innocent little kids, he says one day as Donghyuck fake gags. Jaemin was amused when he finds Jisung more than comfortable, teasing Donghyuck to his death about this certain favoring of the older to Mark. The red on Mark’s cheeks made it even chaotic as Chenle joined in. Jaemin then decides that Jisung is the most interesting on his friend group.

 

The time he and Donghyuck advances to Junior High School was when Jaemin met his most curious case of people. It was two transfer students. They were the talk of the whole school and Jaemin is intrigued. They’ve become a pair of celebrities, as the school body passes rumors after rumors. The half of the said duo was a boy with brown hair and crooked teeth. He met him at his Monday calculus a week after he heard about them transferring. If Jaemin could describe him in words, he’d say the boy is an angel fallen to the grounds of earth to make Jaemin’s heart beat dangerously fast. _“Huang Renjun.”_ The boy said with intonation on his name. The way Renjun move his eyes around the class made the tiny hairs on Jaemin’s neck stood up. The boy radiates a chilling and dark aura, darker than that of Donghyuck’s humor, and Jaemin is beaming with interest. He nearly jumps at his seat when the teacher assigned the vacant table by his side to be Renjun’s own. He follows Renjun’s movements as he slumps his bulky bag pack, taking out a book and assorted colors of pen. Jaemin raises an eyebrow. Renjun began to draw on a paper hiding beneath the pages of his book, already half filled with doodles and some kind of character Jaemin would eventually know as moomin. Jaemin watched him all hour, not even making it discrete. The way Renjun’s eyes curve a little while he gracefully glides the pen on the paper, stroke long lines, and shades color, until an image unfolds right before Jaemin’s eyes has made him smitten. The parted chapped lips of his widen and a gasp was released when Renjun finally drops his pen. A beautiful picture of a bouquet of flowers, stained in red, purple, and yellow was etched on the white paper, and Jaemin swears he saw them moving like there’s air blowing. The bell rang and his head snapped at Renjun’s face. Renjun was smiling at him, full set of teeth blinding Jaemin. But before Jaemin could respond, Renjun took the pens and arranged them on their box. He dunks his things inside his bag, stood up, walks and pauses at the door. He gave Jaemin one last glance and a little smile Jaemin will treasure forever in the depths of his heart. Huang Renjun is an angel in disguise.

 

3 days later, the half of the duo greeted Jaemin with pretty crescent eyes. His hair black as coal and voice deeper than his. Jaemin felt his breath hitch as the boy in front of him laid out his hand, “ _Lee Jeno.”_ The boy introduced and wiggled his hand for Jaemin to finally take notice and signals him to shake. They’ve been assigned as exercise buddies for P.E. and Jaemin has never thanked the gym teacher so much. Jaemin loves sports, and with it, he learned to love the warm ups and exercise that comes along with it. He always prided himself with the strength, so when Jeno, who had run for almost 15 laps, breaking Jaemin’s record of 10, made his sense of curiosity heightened. He secretly observed Jeno’s movements the whole period. The way his legs sprang as his muscles clench at every step is beautifully coordinated. His untucked shirt would let Jaemin peek a little of what’s hidden beneath. Jaemin is sure Jeno has a set of toned abs. He felt very hot the moment he finally landed his eyes on the unsuspecting stomach of Lee Jeno. It wasn’t just abs hiding in there, the skin covering his body looks so soft, Jaemin almost reached for it to know for himself if it really was. This made him feel weird and smushy but Jaemin is a man on a mission. He needs to see more. But then the bell rang and once again, Jaemin finds himself whipping his head on Jeno’s face. Jeno was staring at him for who knows how long, and before Jaemin can explain himself, Jeno smiled at him and Jaemin was left with a sad excuse of a perfectly healthy heart rate.

 

Days went by and Jaemin has fallen into a routine of _observing_ Huang Renjun and Lee Jeno. Renjun loves art, he concluded. He especially loves drawing that moomin character at the margins of his textbook. The first time he had a talk with Renjun was when he got curious of his name. It definitely sounded foreign like that of Mark and Chenle, so he asked to get his head out of the question. “ _I’m Chinese.”_ Jaemin smirked. _I knew it! “Isn’t it obvious?”_ Renjun followed. Jaemin nodded because yes, it is, and that he’s got a very big inkling for a while. But it’s in Jaemin’s nature to ask for answers to satisfy his mind. He reasons this out and Renjun’s eyebrows shot up in the sky. “Interesting.” He says as he offered Jaemin a smile. It goes on, the small conversations they had gave Jaemin the answers he wanted. He was being blunt but Renjun was entertaining him. Maybe he’s a little interested with Jaemin too? That made his cheeks flush a bit of red. Jaemin thought it was a one-time thing, but every time Renjun would offer him a smile, a chuckle, a giggle, Jaemin’s cheeks grew darker and darker and his heart is hammering behind his rib cage. Renjun seem to notice but he doesn’t say anything. He just smiles. He smiles and Jaemin is so, so, weak for Huang Renjun. Jaemin suspects he has a bit of a crush on his seatmate the day he was left smiling to himself at an empty classroom.

 

Jeno has become a bit of a competition to Jaemin at P.E. The guy is just good at everything. Where Jaemin supposes he’s great at, Jeno is at too. At soccer, volleyball, basketball, even at cheering, he seems to be at the same league as Jaemin. It came as a surprise when one day, he met Jeno at his dance club. He enters the club room, clothed with comfortable clothes and dance shoes when he saw a figure, he was very fond of, dancing to hip-hop. Now, Jaemin is confident with his skills. He danced from the early stages of his life. He practiced a lot with Jisung in their middle school and didn’t even have to audition for their school’s showcase. He loves dancing a lot to know when a person is into it too. Maybe there’s something in Jeno’s body that makes Jaemin feel attracted to him. He’s just so graceful. His movements are smooth and rhythmic and Jaemin is drawn. His eyes fixated at Jeno’s smooth motion and his heart already glued on his throat.

 

Jaemin is in denial. The days he spent with Renjun and Jeno has been his favorites, and he finds himself lost in the eyes of the duo whenever he sees them, talk to them, watches them. He’s being creepy, and weird, and his mind is full of questions. He inquired to Donghyuck about his situation. First, he talked about Renjun. How beautiful he is, how his voice is at times croaky but breathy that makes Jaemin want to record every conversation they had and save it on his computer with a folder name of ‘ _Huang Renjun and his angelic voice’_ with a password only Jaemin knows, how talented he is as an artist that if Renjun will make a business out of it, Jaemin is the first to buy every painting he auctions. And then he tells Donghyuck about how pretty Jeno is and his personality. How Jeno graces the dance floor with his whole being. That if Jeno chose to play sports as his profession, Jaemin will follow his lead whether to be his teammate, his coach, or maybe his fanboy if all else fails. That if Jeno asks Jaemin to help him with his dance lessons, Jaemin will go out of his way to plan out a perfect strategy to provide Jeno the best dancing lessons he’ll ever have in his life. By the end of Jaemin’s babbling, Donghyuck’s mouth hangs ajar. “ _I see, you have a crush.”_ Donghyuck says, a grin forming on his lips. Jaemin blinks at the answer he received. “ _Can you please elaborate?”_ he asks, his thoughts in disarray. Donghyuck shakes his head as he lay his hands on Jaemin’s tensed shoulders. He tells Jaemin about how whipped he sounded while talking about the duo and that Jaemin _probably,_ if not hypothetically, likes both Huang Renjun and Lee Jeno.

 

Jaemin hates how Donghyuck sounded so sure about his _hypothesis._ How can Jaemin like two persons at the same time? Isn’t that unlikely? The probability of Jaemin crushing on Renjun and Jeno _must_ be lower than a 90, right? He dismisses the thought and pushed the conversation they had at the very back of his clamorous mind. For the first time in his life, Jaemin chose not to be curious.

 

Maybe it was his intuition when Jaemin accidentally met the duo at the mall. It was a Saturday and Jaemin just usually laze around his room or annoy Mark to finally teach him into playing the guitar. He was about to fall back to sleep when he received a text from Donghyuck telling him to meet him up for movies at noon. Jaemin winces at the brightness of his phone. He does not really fancy the thought of watching a movie with Donghyuck but a certain mop of hairs began to appear on his mind and for a minute, he’s already walking out of their house. It’s still an hour early before he meets up with Donghyuck when he saw them. The duo. The pair. The couple, Jaemin finalizes. Jeno and Renjun are standing at a bookstore, looking through the shelves of books labeled with Science Fiction. The very first thing he noticed was Renjun’s height and his body proportion. He looks _tiny_ besides Jeno. _He’ll look tiny beside me too._ His body is drowned on the oversized plaid jacket he’s wearing and Jaemin finds it endearing. He looks small and soft and the image of a dark aura Renjun had on his mind quickly fades into nothingness. Then his eyes move to Jeno and his white tank top. It reveals his biceps, triceps, a little bit of his armpit, whenever the boy reach for a book at the higher shelves. Jaemin _almost_ failed to notice the glasses hanging on Jeno’s nose. And for who knows how many times it has been, Jeno makes his breath hitch. Jaemin observes them a little more. He’s fascinated by their interactions. Renjun seems to be discussing something very important about the book currently on his hold and Jeno is absorbed. Jeno’s eyes are blurred a bit by his glasses but Jaemin did not missed the sparkle when Renjun met the boy’s eyes. They smiled, the pretty crescents Jaemin carved into his memory. Maybe if Jaemin decided not to pry anymore, he would have missed the hand reaching for Renjun’s nape or the way Jeno lowered his face to reach Renjun’s own. Maybe if he just let his curiosity die a little earlier, then he wouldn’t have his heart beating out of his throat or the weird sensation in his stomach making him uncomfortable. Jaemin has heard a lot about jealousy from Donghyuck and Mark, but he never really grasped the concept. Was it like this?

 

In the end, he watched the movie with Donghyuck, his mind floating around a sensitive topic he has yet to open.

 

 

Jaemin should have learned his lesson. He should have backed out. How can one avoid the likes of Huang Renjun and Lee Jeno? He tried to lessen the conversations he had with Renjun but everytime he closes his mouth and turns back to the blackboard ahead, Renjun would hover his hand over Jaemin’s thigh, he would lower his head and look into Jaemin’s eyes. He would smile, a smile he always gave to him, full of meaning and dangerous thoughts for Jaemin. Jaemin smiles back because that’s all he can do. His body reacts faster than his common sense and for every passing minute he is with Renjun, he falls deeper and deeper into the endless hole of crushing. He tried to lessen the contact with Jeno too. But Jeno is just persistent. Wherever Jaemin went, he goes along. May it be the corner of the gym, the storage room, the bathroom, Jeno is there walking besides Jaemin. Even when Jaemin decided to ditch dance club, He finds Jeno waiting at his locker, those pretty eyes stabbing him right at the heart. He wallows at the thought of liking Jeno as his heart betrays him.

 

One day, when he finally had a break from the presence of his _hypothetical_ crushes, he hides himself at the far right of the school’s library. He contemplates at calling Donghyuck or Mark to be with him at this time of need. But he feels like being alone for a while and he lets sleep cloud the noisy thoughts of his mind. He wakes up with soft shushing and a quiet conversation at his left. He decides not to appear awake and pried at the current voices lingering on his ears. _“Just last one picture, Injunnie. He’s too cute, I want to take more.” “Stop being a creep! We can’t afford him waking up with this set up!” “How will we even do it?” “I have no clue. But if we can just convince him to like even one of us, then maybe we can eventually bring around the idea of poly.”_ Jaemin made a mental note to himself to research what a poly is.

 

It’s been three whole weeks of successfully staging a defense for Jaemin’s feelings. He finally had the guts to completely shut Renjun’s conversations and Jeno’s advancements. His heart aches whenever he sees the disappointment glinting at Renjun’s eyes and the pout at Jeno’s lips, but Jaemin needs time to process everything he knows and he’s feeling. He researched and read a lot of articles about his weird feelings and the _poly_ thing he heard Renjun and Jeno talk about in the library. He’s bombarded with new information at every article that shows up, at every blog discussions and exchange of opinions. The internet is such a busy place. Jaemin can’t really do this all by himself so he calls the best person he deems that can help.

 

 _“Just confess, hyung.”_ Jisung tells him on a bored tone over the speakers of his phone. Jaemin let out a scandalized gasp. He heard Jisung _tsked._ “ _Hyung, do you like Renjun?” “Yes.” “How about Jeno?” “Yes.” “Will you give up one of them?” “No!!” “There’s your answer.”_ Jisung really is an interesting person, Jaemin decided.

 

The 4th week, he still ignored the both of them. But this time, he had a plan. When Jaemin successfully commenced his strategy in the form of sticky notes plastered on both Renjun and Jeno’s locker, asking them to meet up at the far right of the library after school hours at Friday, he’s quite sure there are living butterflies in his stomach, growing in numbers as the time passes by. As he waited, he paced and paced until his feet are sore and his lower lip drained out of blood. Jeno came first. His eyes falling on Jaemin the second he saw the boy. Jeno looks ethereal with his school uniform which Jaemin barely saw him wearing because of PE and dance club. Jeno sat at the chair across where Jaemin was currently standing, his eyes filled with anticipation and a little bit of worry. He greeted Jaemin with a small _“hey,”_ and it took Jaemin all his strength not to walk over the table and hug Jeno on the spot. Minutes passed by when Renjun finally entered. Hair disheveled as he sprints towards Jeno. _“Sorry, I got held up by Mr. Kim.”_ He said, panting. They sat in silence for about a minute when Renjun finally reckon it’s getting awkward that a conversation should be started. Jaemin gulped then took a deep breath. He closes his eyes and finally let out the words he’s been monologuing for nights. ” _I like you.”_ He said. When he opened his eyes, Jeno and Renjun were looking at him with stunned expression. It took several heart beats before Renjun crunched his eyebrows. “ _Who of us?” “The two of you.”_ And then Jeno let out a big gasp. His hand was over in his mouth for a second and Renjun was rendered speechless. Jaemin smiles triumphally. Exactly the reaction he wanted.

 

Jaemin is still as curious as ever. Every passing day, he fills his mind with facts and theories he’s been interested in. He still belonged to the little circle of friends he made and now there’s an addition of two interesting people Jaemin has learned to love and accept. Jaemin deduces that if there is any good in his gift of curiosity, it’s when he finally understood what loving people really is. That if the time comes and the world makes him choose one between Huang Renjun and Lee Jeno, then Jaemin will bite back and protect the relationship he has with the two most important persons in his life. Three against the world doesn’t sound that bad at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Finally! The norenmin fic I had always wanted to write!  
> This came from Pandoras Box but it's not entirely related. I just got the idea of Jaemin being being whipped for Renjun and Jeno from their past two surprise vlives. This is somewhat rushed but I thought it still went out just right, so I published it the moment I finished it. Thank you for reading, and I hope you liked it! Comments are really appreciated. :)  
> Oh! And I just want to add for those who are unfamiliar, Jaemin is Pandora in this fic. He is gifted with curiosity and Renjun and Jeno are his box. He was first hit with unfamiliar emotions and Jealousy which should represent the monsters but in the end, as his curiosity lingers, he finally saw how to handle these emotions and everything is good again. Curiosity will always be a double edged sword, so always be careful with it. :)


End file.
